Feed regulating device for openers and lappers for cotton or other fibrous materials



April! '23, 1935, P. KNOBEL FEED REGULATING DEVICE FOR OPENERS AND LAPPERS FOR COTTON OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS Filed July 16, 1951 Patented Apr. 23, 1935 QS P T NT OFFICE?" Y FEED REGULATING DEVICE FOR OPENERS AND LAPPERS FOR COTTON OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS i Peter Knobel, Winterthur, Switzerland, assignor' to Actiengesellschaft Joh. Jacob Rieterf& Cia, Winterthur, Switzerland N V I Application July 16, 1931, Serial No, 551,2 56 1 In Germany JulyBO, 1930 n 4 Claims. (61.19-70) This invention relates to regulating. devices in combined opening or scutching machines for cotton or similar fibres, wherein two or more eveners are combined together in 'orderto produce'laps '5 of very regular weight.

With a view to obtain with the aid of combined cotton opening machines bats of as nearly an accuratetotal weight as possible and av good uniformity from yard to yard, each of the sections combined to an opening or scutching unit is provided with a separate feed regulating device. In order to produce the desired eifect these devices 'mustwork in dependency on each other. For this purpose the well known feed regulating devices, commonly employed in cotton mills, consisting of evener rollers and series of levers connected to the belt shipperof a cone pulley'regulator, could be interconnected in such manner that for example the drivencone pulley of one evener drives by means of abelt, a a rope ora chain and a shaft on" the driving cone pulley of the next following evener. However, withsuch an arrangement the belt of the first pair of cone pulleys is compelled to actuate all the other eveners and -the sections connected with them, this being unduly strained; Consequently the accuracy of regulatingisdiminished, the belt beginning to slipon the .cone pulleys and eventually resisting completely to being laterally displaced thereon, so that the evenness of the laps results to be even worse thanwith eachfeed regulating transmits the surplus energy required for regulating the first drive. Therefore the driving belt is readily disp-laceable and no part of the draw is lost by slippage.

In the accompanying drawing a constructional form of the invention is illustrated, by way of example only, in which Fig. lshows in a vertical section a first constructional form of the invention including two feed regulating devices in driving association,

Fig. 2 on a smaller scale, in an elevation the manner in'which the feed regulating device is assembled with a set of machines, I v

Fig. Bisa view similar to Fig.1 of a second constructional form of theinvention, and

.Fig. 4 a view-similar to Fig.2 of this second. I 5

form. 7

With the firstconstructional form the shaft of the calender-head or lap head indicated in Fig. 2 drivesby means of thespur gears 2 and 3 (Fig. 1) the lower cone pulley!- of the feed regulating device 5 of the first machine. The shaft 6 of the lower cone pulley .4imparts its motion byway of the chain wheel 1 and chain-8. to the chain'wheel 9 which issecured to a hub of a casing !0. Within'the la-ttertwo spurgears I l and I2 rigidly connected toea'ch other are accommo dated and mounted on. a shaft 13. The gear wheel l2 meshes with the gear I4 fixed on a shaft I 5 which carries at its one end a worm l6 for driving the feed device. On the shaft IS the upper cone pulley I1 is rotatablymounted which, is firmly connected to aspur. gear l8 which engages in a wheel ll A chain 2 0 is passed over a chain wheel l9, secured to the other endof the shaft i5, and from there to chain wheel 2| rigid with a shaft 22, which; transmits its rotational movement to the spur gears 23 and 24 of the second feed regulating device 25'for driving the cone pulleys 26 and 21 comprised by the same, said pulleys being operatively connected by the O belt 28.-. 4 j

This feed regulating device operates as follows: Fromthe shaftfi of the lower cone pulley 4 of thefeedregulating device 5 the casing Ill is driven by means of thechain drive I, 8, 9'thus causing the spur gears H and I2 to perform an orbital movement about the shaft l5 of the upper cone pulley H. I Thereby'the wheel l2 rolls on the wheel M to the extent which the gear I I firmly connected to it and meshing with thewheel 40 v l8 permits. The wheel I8 is driven by the upper cone pulley I! which in turn takes its drive from I A the lower cone pulley 4. by way of thefbelt From this lower cone pulley 4 the wheel 18' is turned according to the position into which the driving belt 29 is adjusted in dependency on the position of the feed roller and by the aid of the casing in the shaft 15 is'also turned at higher or lower speed. The shaft l5 transmits the movement imparted to it by means of the worm IE to the feed roller of the respective machine and also by way of the chain drive I9; 20, 2| to the shaft 22 and thus to the conepulleys 26 and 21 of the feed regulating device 25. The rotational movement of the shaft 1 is therefore transmitted til ' the worm 29 for engagement with to the cone pulleys 26 and 21 of the feed regulating device 25 via the cone pulleys 4 and I! of the speed regulating device 5 and the chains 8 and 20 through the intermediary of the difierential drive I8, II, I2, I4 housed in the casing I0. At the same time the upper cone pulley I1 of the feed regulating device 5 influences through the medium of the differential drive I8, I I, I2, I4 the whole drive in accordance with the ratio of gearing between the cone pulleys 4 and I! which is controlled by the respective position of the belt 29 on these pulleys.

With the second constructional form, from the calender head of the machineset indicated in Fig. 4, again the lower cone pulley 4 of the feed regulating device 5 of the first section is driven by means of the shaft I via the gears 2 and 3. The shaft 6 of the lower cone pulley 4 may transmit its rotation to the lower cone pulley 26 of the pair of cone pulleys 26, 21 of the feed regulating device 25 by direct connection with shaft 6, however, the arrangement may be such that the shaft 6 is driven independently of the cone pulley 4, for example, by means of the wheels 4|, 42 which in turn are actuated by the next following machine. The cone pulley 4 drives the cone pulley II by the aid of the belt 29 and thus the feed rollers of the first machine. The driven cone pulley 21 of the regulating device 25 is firmly connected to the casing Ill of the differential drive of which the wheel I2 which is rigid with the wheel II meshes with the wheel I4 keyed'to the shaft I5. The wheel II engages in the wheel I8, the elongated hub of which carries at its end the wheel 30 for the feed roller. v

This feed regulating device works as follows:

The shaft I drives the lower cone pulley 4. The shaft 6 transmits this motion to the cone pulley 26 through shaft 6' unless the latter is driven directly by the bevel gear wheels 4|, 42. The lower cone pulley 26 drives the upper cone pulley 21 and consequently the casing of the differential drive by means of the belt 28. Said casing imparts orbital movement to the wheels I2 and I I which due tobeing carried on the shaft I3 perform at the same time a partial rolling movement on the wheels I4 and I8. The lower cone pulley 4 drives the cone pulley. II of the first machine. Thereby the shaft I5 is set in motion and the wheel I4 fixed thereto together with it. The orbital movement of the wheels I2 and I I and the rotation of the wheel I4 result in a combined movement of the wheel I8 which is then transmitted to the worm 29 and thus to the worm wheel 30 of the drive for the feed roller.

With this arrangement primarily each belt of the cone pulley drives transmits to the driven cone pulley only so much energy as is required for actuating the feed regulating device. The belt of the first pair of cone pulleys transmits in addition the energy. consumed by the differential drive which, however, is only a fraction of the energy required for driving the feed rollers so that the belt is by no means unduly strained. Consequently all the belts are readily displaceable with ease.

This feed regulating device can be used for any type of cone pulley speed regulators, i. e. for eveners with sectional plates above or for regulators with piano levers below the evener rollers.

I claim,

1. In a feed regulating device for openers and lappers for cotton or other fibrous material, consisting of at least two beater sections, a cone pulley evener for each beater section, a driving pulley and a driven pulley for each cone evener, a differential drive, means for operatively connecting said diiferential drive with one of said driven pulleys and adapting said difierential drive to transmit the movement of said driven pulley to the cone pulley drive of the preceding section in supplementary manner so as to relieve the belt thereof, and to regulate the speed of one of said cone pulley eveners in accordance with the speed of another of said cone pulley eveners and actuating means for said differential drive.

2. In a feed regulating device for openers and lappers for cotton or other fibrous material, consisting of at least two beater sections, a cone pulley evener for each beater section, a driving pulley and a driven pulley for each cone evener, feed regulating means for each section, a differential drive actuated by the driving pulley of the succeeding section, means for operatively connecting said differential drive with the driven pulley of said succeeding section, and transmission means for imparting the drive to the driving pulley of the feed regulating means of the preceding section.

3. Ina feed regulating device for openers and lappers for cotton and other fibrous material having a plurality of beater sections, the combination of'a feeding means for each of said beater sections, a variable speed cone pulley belt drive for each feeding means, a differential drive interposed between said belt drives, adapted to regulate the speed of one of said feeding means in accordance with the speed of another of said feeding means and to substantially equalize the loads on the belts of said belt drives.

4. In a feed regulating device for beater sections of opener and lapper machines for cotton or other fibrous material, comprising a plurality of pairs of cone pulleys, independent driving means for each of said pairs, each of said pairs comprising a driving cone and. a driven cone, a differential drive, the driven pullley of one of said pairs of cone pulleys being connected with said difierentialdrive, the driven cone of said other pair of cone pulleys driving the differential drive, said diiferential drive and the driven cone of said second cone pair driving the feed of one of said beater sections, the first of said cone pairs driving the feed drive of another of said beater sections.

PETER KNOBEL; 

